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Rating: 
Summary: Clerical challenges
Review: A melange of light fantasy with history can provide entertaining reading. In hands of an innovative stylist like de Bernieres, the read is far more - "invigorating" becomes a soft term. His facile style and comprehensive imagination produces a story of limitless value. While steeped in the real world, he introduces a new version of what has been termed "magical reality". Events have a historical base, characters are real, or are at least plausible composites. You are reading history through only slightly distorting spectacles. The deformation allows him to shift from history to parody. Under his skillful touch, nothing in the image is lost, but a wealth of insight is gained.
In this final volume of a trilogy, he depicts the life of a Latin American cardinal - a "prince of the church". Guzman suffers terrible pains and horrific visions. Demons, each with a particular role to play, appear to torment him. He's virtually incapacitated during these attacks. The ministrations of his mistress, Conception [what else?], are futile attempts at the application of folk medicine. Only their son, Cristobal, seems capable of alleviating the Cardinal's agonies. Yet even this happy therapy provides fresh challenges to the cleric. Guzman's familial problems aren't limited to this illegitimate child.
Key chapters in this volume are comprised of a letter to the Cardinal from The Holy Office. The letter aptly summarises the career and impact of the Church in his domain. It's a wonderfully scathing account of the hypocrisies perpetrated upon people in the name of divinity. Part of Guzman's tribulations relate to the letter and its account of the country. You will be returned to it from time to time.
While the Cardinal suffers, the population of a mythical city, Cochadebajo de los Gatos [look it up] find themselves under siege. They have a special relationship with the region's jaguar population, who act as an enlarged, and rather more accommodating, version of the domestic house cat. The siege allows de Bernieres to introduce yet another anomalous character in the person of the British Ambassador. After reading about his antics and treatment by the locals, it says something for British forbearance that de Bernieres was allowed to take up a London
residence.
De Bernieres' view of Latin America is, dare it be said, "catholic". He incorporates the Conquistidore traditions, the mixed roles of the Church, from hierarchical absolutist through evangelical zealots to radical Marxist reformers. The Indian population, mestizos, a lone Mexican, legions of peasants, aloof aristocrats all enter the stage. Few leave unbesmirched, usually through their own actions. Even the nation's President and his bizarre wife are woven adroitly into the narrative. No leader of a "banana republic" could suffer more at the hands of rebel forces than President Veracruz. De Bernieres gives him a slogan rich in irony, given the circumstances: "Democracy Is Safe In Our Hands".
This author has produced a string of successful works, with each seeming to outshine the preceding volume. Having accidentally picked up the third volume of this trilogy, it lost nothing in the reading due to ignorance of the previous books. Take up this, or any of de Bernieres books, secure in the knowledge that you will be shocked, entertained, enlightened and pleased you made the choice. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Rating: 
Summary: Jungle or Andes? Mixed soup of Latin American folklore...
Review: De Bernieres once again sets up his narration in a "ficticious" village in the "Andean Jungle" of South America. Though, if you know of the author's teaching experience in Colombia, and the many "cues" he purposedly gives (in the shape of climatic and geographic features as well as in the expression of the life style of the people involved), it won't be difficult to point out the afore mentioned Latin American country as the "cauldron" the writer will use to freely (=carelessly, non-knowingly) pour his recollection of ancient "gentile" (=pre-Hispanic, pre-Catholic) stories, traditions, myths he must have heard (and subsequently written down to be used later) during his infatuation with the "New World" (as that part of the world is often called due to the lateness to be captured into formal "civilization"). However, even when you know it's purely fictional, there's always something that won't let you swallow it smoothly when, for instance, you find indigenous Quechua, Aymara, and modern Mexican symbolic presence all mixed in one colorful but rather odd and at times tasteless concoction. The magical and the real don't blend so smartly and their transition hardly ever occurs naturally; things just happen and we have to accept them as such without a chance of thinking or criticizing it (due to the risk of giving up reading at all). The main character isn't just one individual but the collectivity of the village that plays the role of the body wherein a handful of extraordinary men and women will compete to outstand as its prominent members in isolated chapters. The language used is simple and easy to read (that is if you're familiar with Spanish sayings and expressions; otherwise you'll miss the witty and sometimes maningful names De Bernieres plays with in this book). What the author tries -and at times succeeds- to depict (not perfectly as stated before) is the way of living and thinking of the people of any Bolivarian (area comprised by Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia) small town; something that will give an idea to the reader of why a young, resource-rich, energetic, spiritual sub-continent has difficulty in "emerging from the pit". Though, of course, a more complex view in this topic is required, I have to admit. The prose is fluid intra- but not so inter- chapters; the genius of the writer is shown in short self-contained not necessarily connected descriptions which at times can get you to feel the emotions he's forcefully inviting you to be part of. If you need something to read while you commute on the train/bus (as I have to) or just need something to read by bits while catching sleep every night (in the same fashion as a 30-minute weekly soap opera), this book will do. If you need something more acurate (though still fictional) and compelling, you'd better stick to native South American writers such as Gabo (GGM) or Marito (MVLl) who are more able of painting real landscapes using fantastic brushes (or viceversa). Probably, now that I think it again, your ignorance of Latin American culture could play in your favor and make you enjoy this book as it happened to me (not a strict connoisseur of Mediterranean matters) when I read Captain Corelli's...
Rating:
Summary: Jungle or Andes? Mixed soup of Latin American folklore...
Review: De Bernieres once again sets up his narration in a "ficticious" village in the "Andean Jungle" of South America. Though, if you know of the author's teaching experience in Colombia, and the many "cues" he purposedly gives (in the shape of climatic and geographic features as well as in the expression of the life style of the people involved), it won't be difficult to point out the afore mentioned Latin American country as the "cauldron" the writer will use to freely (=carelessly, non-knowingly) pour his recollection of ancient "gentile" (=pre-Hispanic, pre-Catholic) stories, traditions, myths he must have heard (and subsequently written down to be used later) during his infatuation with the "New World" (as that part of the world is often called due to the lateness to be captured into formal "civilization"). However, even when you know it's purely fictional, there's always something that won't let you swallow it smoothly when, for instance, you find indigenous Quechua, Aymara, and modern Mexican symbolic presence all mixed in one colorful but rather odd and at times tasteless concoction. The magical and the real don't blend so smartly and their transition hardly ever occurs naturally; things just happen and we have to accept them as such without a chance of thinking or criticizing it (due to the risk of giving up reading at all). The main character isn't just one individual but the collectivity of the village that plays the role of the body wherein a handful of extraordinary men and women will compete to outstand as its prominent members in isolated chapters. The language used is simple and easy to read (that is if you're familiar with Spanish sayings and expressions; otherwise you'll miss the witty and sometimes maningful names De Bernieres plays with in this book). What the author tries -and at times succeeds- to depict (not perfectly as stated before) is the way of living and thinking of the people of any Bolivarian (area comprised by Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia) small town; something that will give an idea to the reader of why a young, resource-rich, energetic, spiritual sub-continent has difficulty in "emerging from the pit". Though, of course, a more complex view in this topic is required, I have to admit. The prose is fluid intra- but not so inter- chapters; the genius of the writer is shown in short self-contained not necessarily connected descriptions which at times can get you to feel the emotions he's forcefully inviting you to be part of. If you need something to read while you commute on the train/bus (as I have to) or just need something to read by bits while catching sleep every night (in the same fashion as a 30-minute weekly soap opera), this book will do. If you need something more acurate (though still fictional) and compelling, you'd better stick to native South American writers such as Gabo (GGM) or Marito (MVLl) who are more able of painting real landscapes using fantastic brushes (or viceversa). Probably, now that I think it again, your ignorance of Latin American culture could play in your favor and make you enjoy this book as it happened to me (not a strict connoisseur of Mediterranean matters) when I read Captain Corelli's...
Rating: 
Summary: Terrific cultural fantasy!
Review: De Bernieres, who wrote the magnificent "Corelli's Mandolin" (see my review below, 1/99), has hit upon another culture in another fantasy. The Troubling Offspring is a wild convoluted tale involving the bizzare characters of, primarily, Cochadebajo (de los Gatos), an imaginary Andean pueblo. De Bernieres, who spent many years in Columbia, has managed to build a tragicomedy involving all of those very real aspects of the South American existence: screwy and corrupt politics, the screwy and corrupt church, and a certain amount of mysticism. The plot begins when the Cardinal decides that another Inquisition is due for the heathens of the mountain villages. The Cochedebajeros (described as a collection of "macho philosophers, defrocked priests, and slightly reformed prostitutes cohabiting in 'cheerful' anarchy") use some of the strangest ammunition imaginable to fight off the holy crusaders. The humor in this novel strikes at every turn, with chapters entitled, for example, "In which his Excellency, President Veracruz, wins the General Election without rigging it too much," or, "In which Felicidad's Gyrating backside Provokes Hostilities, " or, "An Apocalypse of Embarrassment Strikes the City," Oh, like much of De Bernieres, this book is a silly romp through what might otherwise be a serious subject.
Rating:
Summary: Well wrote
Review: I am new to Louis De Bernieres. I've read only two of his books, but recommend his work strongly. The characters seem real and the writing is well done - plain in a good way. The overall impression for me is one of honest writing, which could almost have been depressing or preachy, except for the strength of the characters, and yes it is a funny book.
Rating:
Summary: Well wrote
Review: I am new to Louis De Bernieres. I've read only two of his books, but recommend his work strongly. The characters seem real and the writing is well done - plain in a good way. The overall impression for me is one of honest writing, which could almost have been depressing or preachy, except for the strength of the characters, and yes it is a funny book.
Rating: 
Summary: Such a disappointment
Review: I read the first two books in this series which were fantastic and then I got to this one. It is terrible and a real disapointment.
Rating: 
Summary: Bizarre!
Review: The brilliance of this book lies in the writer's ability to allow you to suspend all preconceived notions of reality. Set in a country obviously modelled on Colombia, this is at the same time like no place you have ever encountered. It is a fantastic place where 300-year old conquistadores are brought back to life; the dead speak to the living and marry and raise dead families with nobody showing any surprise. Ostensibly it is the tale of a corrupt country imploding upon itself with extreme violence while its leaders indulge their vices, all in the name of religion. However, the heart of the book and its brilliance, is in the little people: the inhabitants of Cochedebajo de los Gatos. Surrounded by anarchy, bigotry and violence theirs is the ideal society: free, supporting, loving with a rich sense of humour and prepared, when pushed, to fight to keep evil outside their world. It is this example of how people should live that raises this book from a jolly good read into the realms of the truly great.
Rating:
Summary: Both tragic and humerous
Review: This books is part of a trillogy of books set in a mythical South American country, which is never given a name. Like the other books of the trillogy, it is mostly concerened with the citizens of the city Conchebajo de los Gatos. A city populated with extremely unique and well drawn characters. De Bernieres obviously has a great love for his people, and you get to know all of them very well if you read the entire trilogy. The novel is not a linear story, but a collection of incidents and descriptions of events, some extremely funny, some, like the river overflowing with the corpses of murderd street children, paint a poinient potrait of the social problems of South American cities. Not a light wait romp but a powerfull portrait of south american life, with a good dose of humor and magic thrown in. Having said that, you would be mutch better off starting at the beggining of the trilogy, The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts. The Neather Parts introduces you to all the characters properly, and is I believe a better book. Both funnier and more diverse in it's stories. If you like Don Emmanuel's, then go on to read this.
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